Land Tour: Waverley Plantation Mansion

Columbus is home to some of the finest antebellum homes in the US, miraculously spared during the civil war.  One of the finest is Waverley Plantation.

Built in 1852, this beautiful old home was the centerpiece of a huge and prosperous cotton plantation.  After the last of the 10 children of that family died, the estate passed on to a number of nieces and nephews who began selling off parcels of land.  But they could never agree on what should be done to the house, and so it stood vacant for 50 years in the early half of the 1900's.

It became home to bats, possums, snakes, and thousands of mud dauber wasps. It also became the local party place, where the young folks would gather out of sight of their parents.  Amazingly, throughout these 50 years, there was practically no damage actually done to the house.  Chandeliers remained in place, glass window panes and porcelain door handles remained unbroken, marble mantles remained in tact, and only one of hundreds of spindles on the 4 floors of staircases was missing.  There were original silver backed, gilt framed mirrors that weigh upwards of 800 pounds still in one piece.

In 1962, Robert & Donna Snow bought the house, moved in with their 3 children, and began the mammoth undertaking of restoring the house and grounds.  Donna has since died, but Robert and daughter Melissa still live there.  In fact, it was Melissa who gave us our tour.  She talked about growing up in such amazing surroundings, and discovering journals, letters and other records of life on the plantation still in the house.  She also talked about fighting over whose turn it was to get the snake, and of trying to remove the thousands and thousands of mud homes made by all those wasps, each one filled with dead spiders and other bugs.

The entire house is furnished with the most amazing collection of antiques, including a signed Steinway piano, one of only 5 in the country.  There is a magnolia tree in the garden that experts estimate to be 250 - 300 years old.  We could only imagine what is must look like in full bloom!

Mike and Gay from Irish Attitude were with us, and at one point Gay whispered to me that the window dressings in one of the bedrooms reminded her of Carol Burnett and her Gone with the Wind interpretation.  We both collapsed in fits of giggles.


Oh, and about that starboard engine that died?  It's nothing more than a broken hose, so we'll order a replacement first thing in the morning.  Tomorrow will be a rainy day, so we had planned to stay put anyway.